Law and Culture in Medieval England: NEH Seminar at WMU

 [We have the following press release from Western Michigan University.  DRE.]

Two Western Michigan University faculty members have been awarded a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities—NEH—grant to host a seminar program this summer for higher education faculty and graduate students. It was one of 11 grants chosen nationwide, totaling $1.9 million.

The more than $169,000 grant allocated to Western will fund a four-weeklong institute for university and college faculty participants from around the country. This virtual program hosted by WMU's Medieval Institute, like other NEH institutes, will provide ongoing education for faculty and advanced graduate students to learn about specialized areas of knowledge, led by nationally recognized experts in their fields.

The "Law and Culture in Medieval England" institute will examine law through various perspectives using legal, literary and historical texts. This includes famous documents, such as the Magna Carta, as well as lesser-known sources, some appearing in English translation for the first time. The institute will be interdisciplinary, involving visiting scholars and participants from many fields.

WMU's Dr. Robert Berkhofer III, associate professor of history, and Dr. Jana Schulman, director of the Medieval Institute, will co-direct the program from June 21 to July 16, 2021. Berkhofer is a historian of the central Middle Ages, whose research examines literacy and uses of writing in England and France. Schulman is a specialist in Old English and Old Norse language and literature, focusing on women and the law. In addition to Berkhofer and Schulman, instructors will include six experts in history, English, law and medieval studies from the U.S. and Britain.

The co-directors and visiting scholars of the institute will choose 25 applicants whose teaching responsibilities are in the humanities or social sciences, including those who are not medievalists. Participants may apply beginning December 1. To learn more, visit the Law and Culture in Medieval England website.

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Selden Society Prizes to Papp-Kamali and Kennefick; Honorable Mention to McSweeney

[We have the following announcement from the Selden Society.  DRE] 

David Yale Prize

Instituted in 1998, this biennial prize is awarded for an outstanding contribution to the history of the law of England and Wales from scholars who have been engaged in research in the subject for not longer than about ten years.  Since 2017, separate prizes have been given for the best book and the best article published  in the preceding two years. The prize is named in honour of Mr David Yale, QC, FBA, then President of the Society and formerly Literary Director.

The 2019 David Yale Book prize was awarded to Elizabeth Papp Kamali for Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England (Cambridge University Press, 2019). The prize committee said of this work:

Papp-Kamali’s Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England is a wide-ranging and deeply researched contribution to the history of criminal law. In seeking to understand what ‘felony’ meant in medieval England, Papp-Kamali takes on a question which Maitland considered unanswerable. This book changes our existing understanding, using a challenging methodology which uses a much wider range of sources than is often the case in legal history scholarship. In doing so she places legal history within the history of wider cultural norms and influences to produce perceptive and valuable conclusions.

The committee also recommended that an honourable mention be given to Thomas J. McSweeney for his book Priests of the Law: Roman Law and the Making of the Common Law’s First Professionals (Oxford University Press, 2019)

The 2019 David Yale article prize was awarded to Ciara Kennefick for ‘‘The Contribution of Contemporary Mathematics to Contractual Fairness in Equity, 1751-1867’ in the Journal of Legal History 39 (2018), pp.  307-339. The prize committee said of this article:

Kennefick’s ‘The Contribution of Contemporary Mathematics to Contractual Fairness in Equity, 1751-1867’ is a genuinely novel re-examination of an important part of English legal history, highlighting the interaction between questions of law about contractual fairness, and mathematics. Interest in legal questions drove interest in the study of probability, while developments in the mathematics of probability came to resolve legal questions. The article changes the way we look at the history of this area of law.

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My visit to Canterbury, London and beyond

Frequent readers may note that the blog has been quiet as of late this month but don't worry, I have a perfectly valid excuse, at least from my point of view. This month, I had a hectic visit to the UK to visit some relatives and generally do a bit of sightseeing. I've been to the charming Cathedral-and-University-town of Canterbury in England's garden region of Kent for around 10 days, after which I took the train to incredibly-complicated and ever-so-noisy London (I admit, I favoured Canterbury better) where, as you can imagine, I loitered immensely at the museums there.

I don't usually do personal posts but I suppose it's been too long since the last one. Instead of presenting a wall of text, I'll post photos of the stages of my trips, from Bahrain Airport's departure till Heathrow's, and I'll try to keep it short (I took 400 photographs, incredibly).

Bahrain Airport and Departure:
I got the window seat and being the over-excited person I am, I snapped photos out the window. In my defence, it was a six-hour flight.

Morning flights are the worst.

Basra's river networks.

This is probably Basra. Probably.

We approached the mountains of Kurdistan

This is somewhere over Central Anatolia but I forgot its name.

Shadows of clouds!

Its shadow reminded me of Asia, somehow.

Still in Turkey, it's amazing how clouds look like from above.

The Romanian coastline, from the Black Sea. First time I see Europe.

Another view of the coast. Romania is green....

...and just as cloudy as Turkey.

Hungary and Austria were super-cloudy, I assumed it was flooding.

Spotted this monster cloud just south of Dresden (6 June)

I see German land for the first time!

Approaching the Netherlands

Final piece of continental Europe, Dutch land reclamation fully visible.

Train ride!

This was the first time I ever used a train so naturally, I was overly excited. The train moved so fast and at times, I thought we'd hit the train on the other side of the tracks! Note to self, never sit by the window ever again.

I think I now realise why Kent is called England's garden.

Canterbury:

Canterbury is a small city located in southeast England and a popular tourist destination amongst the British (and generally anyone who likes really old buildings). The pride of the city is the majestically built Canterbury Cathedral that was first founded in 597 AD, which also hosts the leader of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Aside from that, the hub of the city is the seemingly never-ending multitude of ancient buildings lining up High Street, forming Canterbury's city centre. One observation I've made is that, as a person coming from a country were public transportation is neglected, the amazing efficiency of the bus system in the city came as a surprise. It was well maintained and reasonably cheap, I only wished this was the case in Bahrain.

Old Blighty lives up to its name.

Old and new Canterbury; the city walls - now a walkway!

Canterbury castle's walls were walking paths! How awesome is that?

A mound dating back to Roman times.

Found this close by (stupid graffiti)

One of the many ruined towers along the walls.

It goes on for a while.

To your left; trees growing in the adjacent park (I've never seen so much greenery)

To your right, asphalt.

These flowers were everywhere. Can someone identify them?

This was in the park, it looked stunning.

Amazing view.

I found so many pennies in the fountain

Canterbury's city centre! So busy and bustling with tourists.

And the first museum I visit; nicknamed The Beaney.

2:30pm 27/6/2013 - Well that is enough photos for now at least, due to time constraints I'll post more photos of my trip at a later time (making this one really long photo-post). Thank you for your patience and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section. 
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10th of July, 2013 - Well that was a rather long break. To compensate, here are some photos from the Beaney.

From what I gathered, the Royal Museum & Free Library (cutely called The Beaney) is dedicated primarily to a Canterbury-born Dr. James Beaney, a Victorian surgeon in the British army who served in the Crimean War and later became a politician in Australia. In the building, there was also a permanent art gallery showcasing the works of the renown English landscape artist, Thomas Sidney Cooper, who had a thing for cattle.

A friend told me the place was basically the treasure house of a Victorian adventurer... he wasn't joking.

A donation from the public in the Cooper exhibit.

One of his works (apologies for the horrible quality)

It has to be said that this looks more impressive in person.

Upstairs in the building lies Oriental "loots", such as this camel skull.

And the obligatory ancient-Egyptian cat statues.

Medals belonging to Dr. Beaney (he was a busy man)

A letter written in blood, showcased on the top floor.

Trophies amongst others.

More loot from the Orient.

This was in the animal exhibit. A stuffed falcon, I believe.

More stuffed birds.

A fox... (Look away, bunny)

Stuffed red squirrels

Materials were also on display.

I've always wanted to see a badger...

Taj Mahal painting in the museum.

And amazing china.

If only I remembered to look at the labels.

A bust of Dr. Beaney, I presume?

These paintings were beautiful. More so in person.

Literally a letter in a bottle. Try to read it.

This is a seed! (Allegedly)

More medals for Dr. Beaney, I suppose.

One thing has to be stressed, the stained windows were gorgeous.

 This concludes this update. Next time, I'll be posting photos from the Canterbury Heritage Museum and if time permits, Whitstable! Ciao.

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